In the University of California, Santa Cruz, there is a large collection of photos (about 10 thousand!) of the Soviet Union, taken by photographer Branson DeCou who travelled around the country a lot. At that time they were able to take color photos but for some reason the photographer preferred to take black-and-white ones and then colour them by himself. Taking into account the fact that it took him several hours to color just one slide, how much time then did it take him to color the whole collection?

Odessa, tourists at the port.

Odessa, a city council (or a city executive committee?).

Odessa, a shop window with portraits of Lenin and Stalin.

Odessa, a monument in Shevchenko park with a flower portrait of Stalin.

Pictures are colored correctly like the first old vintage type of color pictures, it’s based on black and white shading and yes people can have rosy cheeks especially in Odessa attributed to fresh sea air and sun and positive attitude of people of Odessa. I think the pictures and the people in them look charming and not like clowns at all.

Thanks ER for yet another swell collection from USSR. Yes, the hand-coloring seems overdone but just look at the awful ads on TV! Color film did not come into use until late 1930’s and was expensive and slow to process. Hand-coloring gave work to artists and was popular for decades. Despite the purges and terrible things, photos of crowds in Soviet times seem to show better dressed and some satisfactions and smiles – sorry all you Russia-haters – and I like to see that.